“How’s Henry Carson?” Tobias asked, gearing himself up to pay the school a visit and have that obnoxious child dealt with. Jacob shrugged and looked at the menu. “Jacob?” This didn’t look too good. “Has he been mean to you again?”

“No.”

“Because if he was, you would tell me, wouldn’t you?”

Jacob nodded. “He doesn’t play with me.”

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” The less contact Jacob had with that child, the better.

“He’s having a birthday party and he didn’t invite me.” Shoot. Tobias felt his shoulders tighten.

“Did you want to go?” He made a face as if he’d smelled something disgusting. “I wouldn’t want to go to Henry Carson’s party.”

Jacob squealed, almost laughing. “But Henry wouldn’t invite you! He doesn’t even know you.”

“I guess that makes me a very lucky man,” replied Tobias, grinning. At least the boy was smiling again.

“But Lenny’s going and so is everyone else.”

Tobias inhaled deeply. The kid was playing that game, was he?

“I wish I could have a party and not invite him,” Jacob mumbled, his face downcast. Tobias tried to think of something to say to make him feel better but Jacob asked, “When are you going to pick me up in your Ferrari?”

“That’s a good question.” Tobias was reminded of the promise he’d made. “It’s not my Ferrari, it’s my brother’s.”

“Don’t you have one?”

Tobias shook his head.

“Why not?”

“I only need one car,” he explained. He could have had a fleet of the most expensive cars in the world but he didn’t see the need to own more than one car, and even then he didn’t drive it much. Many of his businessmen friends owned strings of cars and jets and homes. Tobias owned homes, because property appreciated over time and also because Ivy had loved to travel. She loved to escape and take him away from the chaos of his business life.

In the early days he’d worked ridiculous hours, and getting away had been the only way they’d been able to spend quality time together. So he had purchased homes in the places they visited regularly.

He’d been recently thinking about buying another home. A family home in New York. A new place where he could make new memories. He found Jacob observing him silently as he became lost in his own thoughts.

“I can pick you up whenever you want, buddy.”

“Mommy said I shouldn’t keep pestering you because you’re always busy—”

“I’m never too busy for you.”

Jacob smiled.

“Let me check my schedule and I’ll get back to you, though my schedule isn’t the problem.” He really did want to show up at the school gates, not to show off, but to see the Carson kid. “The thing is, Jacob, I don’t think your mom would approve.”

The boy looked disheartened and winced. “She won’t like it,” he said, in a miserable voice. “She already said she didn’t want me to show off in front of anyone at school just because you were our friend.”

“Your mommy is very wise.”

This seemed to cheer Jacob up and his infectious smile made Tobias grin because he loved seeing this kid happy. It was a long way away from the curious yet timid little boy he’d seen at the toy store around Christmas time; from the child that Candace had dragged into his office when she’d found him sitting under Savannah’s desk, trying to hide.

“It’s a man thing,” said Tobias, explaining. “Men like to act first and think later. Your mommy’s right. It’s not the right way of dealing with things, but I don’t think that kid is being fair to you, and so I consider it a good tactic—showing off, I mean. I could have a talk with him.” Or would that be going too far? Jacob shook his head immediately. “Maybe not,” Tobias said. This parenting thing was new to him and for now, he was content to sit back and watch how Savannah dealt with things. Not that he was a parent, yet, but he loved the boy as if were his own. “I don’t think your mom would like it if I did that either. We’ll figure something out, buddy. The more we do this, sitting and talking about things, man to man, I’m sure we’ll figure out a way of getting even with Henry Carson.”

Jacob looked a little happier.

Tobias knew Savannah was worried about Jacob, and they had both been keeping an eye on him, looking out for any signs of the effects that the ordeal with Colt might have had on him. There was also the time he’d been with the woman who had tried to befriend him. Tobias’s contact in the police department hadn’t come up with any more information on the woman, but he did have details about the girl who had stepped in and prevented her from taking Jacob.

“Man to man?” asked Jacob solemnly, mirroring Tobias in the way he clasped his hands together on the table, looking suitably serious.

“Man to man,” said Tobias. “Look, buddy, if ever there’s something you can’t tell your mom, you must tell me because I don’t want you to worry by yourself. It doesn’t matter how busy you think I am. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Are you hungry?” Tobias asked, picking up the menu. “Your mom should have been here by now.”

Jacob shook his head. “I can wait,” he said. “I like this.”

“It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?” Tobias looked around at the large, light-filled café that was in the Museum Mile and next to Central Park. They sat inside because the tables outside were full, and also because inside was an enclosed space, one that was easy for his bodyguards to watch over and especially these days when he found himself being even more cautious each time he had Jacob or Savannah with him.

“I mean this,” said Jacob, with his hands in his lap. “Spending the weekend with you.”

Tobias smiled and leaned over the table. “Me too, buddy. I can’t think of a better way to spend my weekend either.” He winked at the boy. He wasn’t used to spending his weekends like this, with Savannah all night, and then both of them around the next day. He wasn’t running, or boxing with his trainer as much, and that wasn’t a bad thing either.

He liked this. He liked it a lot.

To step out from that place of loneliness when his weekends had been empty—and going to the office on Saturday had been an appealing option—to spending time like this was quite some turnaround.

But being the kind of man he was, it wasn’t enough. Tobias wanted the whole thing. All of this, all of the time and forever. And he was going to make it happen. When Savannah had insisted on seeing the rental properties today, he’d seen it as a chance to spend time with Jacob, especially since she seemed anxious to want to go alone. She’d called a short time ago telling him she would meet him here at The Bluebell.

Despite his best attempts to keep her in bed all morning—an impossibility, he later learned, with Jacob getting up at the crack of dawn—he hadn’t been able to convince her to move her appointments to next weekend. After thinking things over, he had concluded that it would be in his best interests to let this play out. To pretend it didn’t bother him, her looking for a place to rent when he had an apartment that was huge, and when he wanted her to move in with him.

But he couldn’t throw this at her. She’d only dig her stubborn and independent heels right in to prove a point. He had to let her find out for herself. Rents were high, and she was going to be in for a nasty shock.

But he was working on getting his cards all lined up so that he was ready with an alternative. She would soon realize how high rents were and that living and working in New York with a child, on her wages, would be difficult. And maybe then she might consider moving in with him, if he figured out a way to get her to. Her cousin returning sooner than expected had caused upheaval in all their lives but as always, Tobias saw the opportunity in it.

“Do you think Mommy found a place?”

“I don’t know, buddy. We’ll find out soon.”

Jacob didn’t look too happy about it.

“Don’t you want to move?” Tobias asked, curious to know the boy’s take on things, though he had a fairly good idea.

“I don’t want to change schools but Mommy said I might have to.”

“She did, huh?”

“She said she might have to change jobs as well.”

“She did?” He pretended this was news to him. “Your mommy talks to you about all the decisions she’s making, doesn’t she?”

“She says we have to decide together but I really don’t want to change schools. Lenny is my bestest friend in the whole world and I don’t think Mommy wants to change jobs either but she says sometimes you don’t have a choice.” Tobias’s heart lurched to listen to this child who was wise and sensible beyond his years. Jacob was almost too grown-up for a six-year-old, but Tobias knew he’d had to become that child because his mother had needed him to.

“I think your mommy is trying to do the right thing even though it might not be the easiest thing, Jacob.” And yet she had him, Tobias Stone and he would do anything for her but she didn’t always let him help her. He was always there for her and he always would be but she seemed to be taking her sweet time getting used to the idea.

Most of the women he came into contact with wanted to be taken care of. He knew from Xavier’s experiences that women wanted to be wined and dined, and here he was, ready to give Savannah the world, but she was only taking it one piece at a time.

And then only after a million questions.

Sometimes it was painful to watch her make her moves, two forward, three back. He had to let her get comfortable. That was why he hadn’t yet posed the obvious solution to her current problem, the so-in-your-face-it-was-blindingly-obvious answer: that moving in with him would solve everything for her.

He was biding his time.

“But if she changes jobs then you won’t see her anymore.” It was a question dressed as a statement.

“There’s that,” Tobias answered, turning his head to look out of the window as a yellow cab pulled up outside.

“Do you like having my mom around?” Jacob asked, clutching his Iron Man figurine which went with him everywhere.

“I love having you and your mom around,” Tobias told him truthfully, making the boy smile again.

“I know she likes having you around.”

“That’s good to know,” replied Tobias.

“Mommy’s here!” cried Jacob, seeing Savannah getting out of the cab. Tobias waited to find out how her morning with the realtor had gone.

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